Stewards of the Land

[00:00:08]Josie and I met out in Maine when we were going to college.

[00:00:12]We moved back to work on the a vegetable farm together.

[00:00:16]And the neighbor had some ground that they wanted grazed. It was an old overgrown pasture. And so we started off, you know, with 20 ewes. [music] We knew that we wanted to farm, we knew that we wanted to raise livestock.

[00:00:29]Um but land access is a real challenge around here.

[00:00:32]>> Arlo got really serious in big ways with big goals. It was just us, we were hauling a lot of white fences of temporary net fencing and learning a lot. [music] >> You know, it's really high-quality farming ground, which means that it's really expensive.

[00:00:47]We were looking around and like, well, where is there a where is there an opportunity [music] to graze? Well, there's all these solar fields going in all around us.

[00:00:56]And [music] so, you know, there's a lot of talk about like, you know, kind of changing the narrative of how livestock are [music] used.

[00:01:04]>> So, what sheep are really good at is eating grass. So, we looked around and said, where is there grass that needs to be managed around here? [music] And we saw all these solar sites coming on and we were like, man, somebody has got to manage these things.

[00:01:15]>> It's great to see folks like Arlo and Josie come in and say, this is a great market opportunity for me. I can have a really healthy [music] herd here and can make a good business.

[00:01:23]>> What excites me about doing this is being part of like [music] testing out something new, even though it's a very old concept, people putting animals on plants, but [music] now it's reframed with energy.

[00:01:39]>> By introducing these kind of agricultural ideas, we're able to kind of unlock this whole new world of um possibilities. There's this opportunity to really rethink about [music] how we are going to engage with the land. And there's like this really incredible potential to have pretty enormous positive impact on soil health, water quality, and biodiversity.

[00:02:00]>> Humans and plants and animals have coexisted for eternity, [music] right?

[00:02:04]And so, like animals are a part of the management strategy.

[00:02:07]>> If we add solar grazing to be a part of the vegetation management [music] versus just mowing, we're automatically adding an agricultural production.

[00:02:16]>> [music] >> And we have the sheep also enhancing that habitat while also creating in these different market opportunities for farmers.

[00:02:22]>> Right now, the status [music] quo in agriculture in the Upper Midwest is conventional corn and soy.

[00:02:27]And that is the top contributor to unhealthy water and soil loss. [music] And this strategy is, for the most part, counter to that.

[00:02:35]>> Soil is alive. Soil is a living thing.

[00:02:37]It's a part of the landscape. As grazers, if you don't have good soil, you don't have good grass. And if you don't have good grass, you can't have healthy sheep.

[00:02:43]>> When you're grazing a grass, what you're doing is you're basically growing a crop, and that crop is feeding the soil, but it's being grazed and being accumulated into that [music] animal, and then those nutrients from that crop are being recirculated in the system [music] through manure.

[00:03:01]You get a whole recirculating system with the soil, >> [music] >> the crop, and the livestock. A complete system.

[00:03:07]>> We're able to come in and implement these targeted grazing systems that retain better moisture, that are increasing nitrogen levels. We're bringing organic matter back into the soil and and creating [music] healthier soils than we received.

[00:03:20]>> Yeah, I want to just pass that over.

[00:03:27]>> The interesting thing about Cannon Valley Grazers is that we're a decentralized grazing company, right? We don't really have a farm in the traditional sense. [music] We don't look like your traditional farmers in a lot of ways.

[00:03:38]>> Farming and ranching [music] since the dawn of time has been long hours, [music] low pay.

[00:03:45]But there's people that love it, and they want to do it. And I would [music] say that the reason that we're don't have a younger generation coming it's not cuz [music] people don't want to work those hours.

[00:03:55]It's because people don't have access to the land [music] or the capital or the opportunity. And solar grazing provides the opportunity for people that want to work [music] that hard, and that just excites me not only for what we do, but my [music] kids.

[00:04:12]They've got an opportunity that they wouldn't have otherwise.

[00:04:15]>> This is again that that nexus of energy and agriculture.

[00:04:18]>> What motivates me is that I get to like live my dream. Like I [music] get to live this life that is so uniquely like ours and of [music] this place.

[00:04:27]>> How could you not want to pursue it? I mean, it's beautiful. Look at Look at us. Look around.

[00:04:33]>> [laughter] >> It's incredible. We get to be We get to be out here every day.

[00:04:37]>> [music] >> It's like one part really being in love with being outside and working and and one part really feeling like there's an urgent need for meaningful impact on the environment around us.

[00:04:47]>> We're business partners.

[00:04:50]>> [laughter]